Marstone, which has developed a digital investment and wealth-planning platform for banks, has closed an $8 million Series B round led by New York-based Mendon Venture Partners and Florida’s South Rose Capital.
Other investors included new investor Castle Creek Launchpad Fund, and prior investor Equity Bank (NYSE: EQBK). So far, the New York startup has raised $28 million in three rounds of funding. Other prior investors include Amerant Bancorp and Apex Fintech Solutions, which led the Series A round.
Digital Push
“In today’s economy, financial firms are under immense pressure to retain deposits, increase fee revenue, and stem outflows to external, digital-first investment solutions. Marstone is the only enterprise wealth management platform with the flexibility, scalability, experience, and speed to market to meet these mandates,” said Marstone co-founder and CEO, Margaret J. Hartigan, a former financial advisor at Merill Lynch’s Global Wealth Management Group.
“For many, digital investing and wealth planning are the most strategic paths toward those goals,” Hartigan added.
Hartigan’s co-founders at Marstone are Chief Creative Officer Robert Stone, and Chief Financial Officer and Chief Strategy Officer Christopher D. LaVine. Stone previously co-founded Stone Yamashita Partners, a communications and design consulting firm. LaVine previously held senior positions at A.R. Schmeidler & Co., which manages assets of over $1.5 billion. He holds an MBA from the Darden School of Business at the University of Virginia.
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‘White Label’ Solution
Marstone has developed a technology platform, called Powered by Marstone, that includes financial planning and wellness tools, and a white-label robo advisor. Powered is easy to roll out for banks not only because of its core tools, but also because of easy integrations. For example, it can work with custodians such as Pershing, core banking platforms like Fiserv, and other account aggregation platforms, and investment managers.
The company believes its platform gives banks the big digital push they need to survive in the emerging banking environment in which over a fifth of bank branches have disappeared. Marstone’s platform also helps banks meet a sharp shift in consumer preferences, and build new businesses integrated financial planning and generational wealth transfer.
Last year, Marstone announced a partnership with Jack Henry that creates a single sign-on system for customers of the Missouri bank’s Banno digital banking platform, broadening access to digital wealth management. It also has partnerships with community banks such as Woodforest National Bank, Equity Bank, Red River Credit Union, Amerant, American Bank & Trust, and Bank of Oak Ridge, as well as Bancolombia in Colombia. Will and estate planning startup FreeWill uses Marstone’s Marstone white-label solution.
